William Butler Yeats

I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show him at his best, or even a good man swings his lantern higher.

To be born woman is to know - although they do not speak of it at school - women must labor to be beautiful.

The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.

Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.

In dreams begins responsibility.

But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams, Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round.

Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.

The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.

She bid me take love easy as the leaves grow on the tree But I being young and foolish with her would not agree.

Florence Farr once said to me "If we could say to ourselves with sincerity 'this passing moment is as good as any I shall ever know ' we could die upon the instant and be united with God."

Be secret and exult Because of all things known That is most difficult.

A statesman is an easy man He tells his lies by rote A journalist makes up his lies And takes you by the throat So stay at home and drink your beer And let the neighbours vote.

Of our conflicts with others we make rhetoric of our conflicts with ourselves we make poetry.

All empty souls tend to extreme opinion.

Only that which does not teach which does not cry out which does not condescend which does not explain is irresistible.